Collective Bricolage Process of Social Entrepreneurship: A Multi-Case Study

Resource constraints persistently threaten the fulfilment of social missions in social entrepreneurship. While prior work acknowledges bricolage as a useful response, the literature has largely remained at the individual level of analysis, overlooking the collective dynamics and knowledge integration inherent in multi-actor collaboration. Drawing on a knowledge perspective and employing a multiple-case study design, we investigate how three social entrepreneurial organizations—CanYou Group, Buy42, and Big Fish Community—address resource shortages through collective bricolage. Our findings show that collective bricolage unfolds as a dynamic process of four stages—demand trigger, resource mobilization, negotiation and dialogue, and collaborative co？creation—that move forward while also looping back on themselves. Knowledge flows permeate the entire process, successively manifesting as problem？frame construction, knowledge aggregation, cross？actor interpretation, and the emergence of novel solutions. What sets collective bricolage apart from its individual counterpart is precisely the multi？actor negotiation over knowledge and rules, with the degree of rule formalization varying continuously with the heterogeneity of the actors involved. This study extends bricolage theory beyond individual resource recombination towards collective knowledge construction, and offers actionable implications for social entrepreneurial organizations seeking to identify, mobilize, and integrate dispersed knowledge.